The present invention generally relates to the field of portable electronic devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to the field of personal digital assistants (PDAs) and other similar types of portable electronic devices.
Computers and other electronic devices have become integral tools used in a wide variety of different applications, such as in finance and commercial transactions, computer-aided design and manufacturing, health care, telecommunication, education, etc. Computers along with other electronic devices are finding new applications as a result of advances in hardware technology and rapid development in software technology. Furthermore, the functionality of a computer system or other type of electronic device is dramatically enhanced by coupling these type of stand-alone devices together in order to form a networking environment. Within a networking environment, users may readily exchange files, share information stored on a common database, pool resources, and communicate via electronic mail (e-mail) and via video teleconferencing. Furthermore, computers along with other types of electronic devices which are coupled to the internet provide their users access to data and information from all over the world. Computer systems have become useful in many aspects of everyday life both for personal and business uses.
Included within this broad category of computers and electronic devices is the personal digital assistant (commonly referred to as a PDA). Specifically, as the components required to build a computer system have been greatly reduced in size, new categories of computer systems have emerged. One of these new categories of computer systems is the personal digital assistant. A personal digital assistant is a portable computer system which is small enough to be held in the hand of its user and can be xe2x80x9cpalm-sized.xe2x80x9d
Since personal digital assistants are very small, full-sized keyboards are generally not efficient input devices. For instance, personal digital assistants using keyboards usually have keyboard devices that are so small that a user typically cannot touch-type on them. Many personal digital assistants employ a stylus and a digitizer pad as an input system. The stylus and digitizer pad work well for personal digital assistants because the arrangement allows a user to hold the personal digital assistant in one hand while writing with the stylus onto the digitizer pad with the other hand. A small on-screen keyboard image can also be used for data entry. Because of the elimination of the keyboard, personal digital assistants are very portable and tend to be carried by the user wherever they go, including on travel.
Furthermore, the personal digital assistant is usually a battery powered device that is typically used as an electronic organizer having the capability to store and display a wide range of information which can include numerous addresses and telephone numbers of business and personal acquaintances, financial information, daily appointments, along with various other personal information. In this manner, the personal digital assistant is able to consolidate a variety of information which is easily accessible by its user. Therefore, personal digital assistants are very useful and powerful devices.
It should be appreciated that even though there are many advantages associated with personal digital assistants, one disadvantage is that anyone in possession of someone else""s personal digital assistant typically has unrestricted access to the variety of personal and private information stored within it. As such, if a personal digital assistant is misplaced or lost and falls into the wrong hands, the stored private information may be accessed and used for purposes detrimental to the owner of the personal digital assistant. Therefore, the private information stored by a personal digital assistant is typically accessible by any potential user of the device. Second, as personal digital assistants become more ubiquitous, it would be desired to take advantage of this fact to provide methods to make personal digital assistant usage easier.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and system for restricting access to private information stored by a personal digital assistant. Embodiments of the present invention provides this advantage and others which will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of embodiments in accordance with the present invention.
Specifically, one embodiment in accordance with the present invention includes a removable expansion card about the size of a postage stamp which plugs into a slot of a personal digital assistant computer system. The removable expansion card, referred to as a personality card, is capable of storing all of a user""s private information and data which is used within their personal digital assistant. By removing the personality card from the personal digital assistant, all of the user""s private information and data may be removed from the personal digital assistant. Furthermore, the personal digital assistant may also be rendered totally or partially useless once the personality card is removed from it. There are several advantages associated with a personality card system in accordance with the present invention. For example, one of the advantages is that a user is able to restrict access to their stored private information and data by simply removing their personality card from their personal digital assistant. Furthermore, as personal digital assistants equipped with personality card slots become increasingly more common, a user will be able to continually carry around their personality card and enable a spare and locally available personal digital assistant with their private information when desired.
In another embodiment, the present invention includes a system for enabling and disabling a personal digital assistant computer system. The system includes a personal digital assistant computer system and a peripheral component for coupling to the personal digital assistant computer system. The peripheral component includes a memory device for storing data. In response to the peripheral component coupling to the personal digital assistant computer system, the peripheral component enables the personal digital assistant computer system. Additionally, in response to the peripheral component uncoupling from the personal digital assistant computer system, the personal digital assistant computer system cannot be powered on.
In yet another embodiment, the present invention includes a method for enabling and disabling a personal digital assistant computer system. The method includes the step of coupling a peripheral component to a personal digital assistant computer system. The peripheral component includes a memory device for storing data. In response to the step of coupling the peripheral component to the personal digital assistant computer system, the method includes the step of enabling the personal digital assistant computer system. Furthermore, the method includes the step of accessing and modifying the data stored by the memory device of the peripheral component. Additionally, the method includes the step of uncoupling the peripheral component from the personal digital assistant computer system. In response to the step of uncoupling the peripheral component from the personal digital assistant computer system, the personal digital assistant computer system is disabled from being powered on.